Greetings OpenSpacers, Yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity of *participating* as opposed to facilitating an Open Space. As I have written before, I am one of the facilitators/trainers in the community volunteer conflict resolution training program, Alternatives to Violence Project (www.avpusa.org). The program started in US prisons at the initiative of inmates in the mid-1970's and now exists both in the community and prisons in over 30 countries.
This was a gathering of AVP facilitators (for our personal development) and for not-yet-facilitators who are active in the project. There were only about 8 of us. A Russian friend of mine, Anna Bernikova (very active in street orphan issues and an editor of a magazine, Bezprizornik "Street Orphan"), who'd gotten a short intro to OST at a weeklong human rights training in Canada (in French!) and had tried a few impromptu OS'es on her own led it. She realizes that she wants to get more into OS. So we made a deal: I coach/mentor her in OS and she leads a few OS's, OS's where I need/want to be a participant. During the coaching, while I was demo'ing the walking the circle, she noticed how she was starting to get sick to the stomach! I began thinking, "my goodness, do I generate negative, destructive energy when I open space?" An interesting doubt, but I'm inclined to think that's the effect of entering chaos. I have heard of people being in analagous states during the chaos stage of group formation. I told Anna, "when you open space, it's up to you to do what feels right for you, though I feel like walking the circle is very important." So, when Anna opened space, she just stood there in the very small circle. No speaking of wisdom, energy, looking around the room, no breaths. Just the theme, passion, responsibility, the 4 principles, the Law, and reports. Some of us had participated in an OS before. And of course there is no way of knowing what would've happened had she done all those other things. For me personally, it was a very fruitful day. 5 hours worth of sessions. I personally proposed 5 topics! Too bad we didn't get to one of them. And in true OS spirit, after opening space, she took off to take her 3 kids from one end of Moscow to another and came back some three hours later. Among the topics we discussed: 1. Improving the AVP-Moscow website 2. Attracting more participants to our workshops 3. Process psychology and AVP 4. Making the Basic level workshop more dynamic We didn't get to, sadly: 1. developing a "moral code" for facilitators 2. the hidden agendas of facilitators 3. AVP in Ingushetia Yes, for an unfortunate reason, really, the coordinator (and senior trainer) of the Alternatives to Violence Project in Ingushetia, a delightful Chechen friend named Mir was in town. As some may have seen in the news in the past week or so, there was a terrorist act during the May 9 World War II V-day celebrations in Grozny, and the president of Chechnya, Ahmad Kadyrov was assassinated. 5 others died, including one of Mir's closest friends, Adlan Hassanov, a friend from his student days and a Reuters journalist. Reuters organized a special event in memory of Adlan and invited different pepole close to Adlan, including Mir. They wined and dined all those who came, put them up in the 5-star Radisson-Slavyanskaya hotel, treated to VIP european buffets (all you can eat everything.) Some of the Chechens during these meals were driven to tears because this was such special treatment on such a sad occasion and in such sharp contrast to how they usually live. They had come out of a totally different context. They were taken to see Swan Lake at Moscow Bolshoi Theater. One Chechen remarked that even in death Adlan was taking care of them. And yet, when I heard all of this I was very sad, it spoke so much to the post-modernist absurdity of our existence. Mir doing peacework at home, organizing workshops, living on a tiny salary (even so, there are sometimes wage arrears; and this is while working with an international humanitarian organization!). I know how Mir lives, until recently he lived in a tent camp, that is until the Russian authorities tore those refugee camps down (another violation of international law). And he was able to secure a room in a multi-family plywood house. Basically it's a wood house, his family of 4 has 6 square meters...The tent by comparison was a palace, at least there was space (even if it was sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter). And it occured to me this morning that with the money reuters had spent on putting him up and wining and dining, he probably would be able to buy his family a small home in a Russian village. Living absurd. And it was difficult listening to him, because I heard essentially a numbness, a pain so deep as a consequence of this death, that he sees only a point in living today. Other than that, he has no desire for anything, not for leaving Ingushetia (which he doesn't care for); nor for going abroad (more loneliness); nor for moving to Moscow (constant harrassment by authorities; being targeted/hated by others; shaken down for "chump change" by the police here). There was nothing I could say but just listen...and cry. And yet, I was very happy to see him. It's the people in Chechnya who are trying to do *something* that give me hope. Even if there aren't a lot of them. I look forward to going to Ingushetia in the next month of so to work with him a little. I had hoped during the OS to interview him (as I had done previously) about his work, and to publish it somewhere. But, whatever happens, happens. I had the common sense...(eventually!) to stop for a moment and really sit down and listen instead of being the whole time in idea generation mode. I asked myself during the closing, did breakthrough learning happen? Yes, it did. I guess we could call this just another day in OS! To all out there a friendly salute and a warm handshake, Raffi Aftandelian Moscow * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
